"The purpose of this site is to introduce students to the literary environment in which Whitman and Dickinson learned to write and to help students investigate the important exchanges that Whitman had with Emerson and Dickinson had with Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911), a Unitarian minister turned influential journalist and abolitionist. The site includes: a chronology of the early lives of both poets, the exchange between Whitman and Emerson, the exchange between Dickinson and Higginson , suggested topics for investigations, a bibliography of print and electronic resources "

"Dickinson's use of foreign place names should encourage us to read her poems in a larger context." Site includes texts of her poems, historical context information, a bibliography, and suggestions for student projects.

The site is divided into three sections, one which "explores Whitman's and Dickinson's literary responses to the Fugitive Slave Law", one which examines their use of images of an Ethiopian in their poems, and one which considers whether their war poetry was influenced by Mathew Brady's photographs.

"This site offers an historical overview of the elegy as a poetic form from its early origins through the mid-nineteenth century ; a selection of the elegiac poetry and related prose of Whitman and Dickinson ; a selection of critical positions of literary scholars who have commented on Whitman's and Dickinson's use of the elegy ; suggested topics for investigations using the materials in the site and the Whitman and Dickinson archives ; a bibliography of print and electronic resources "

"The following pages span the life and work of Emily Dickinson, a great American poet from the 19th century. Factual in nature, they provide some anecdotes as well as historical information which may be helpful when reading Dickinson's work."